


Sword through the Heart, ‘Till Death Do Us Part

by LoveMicahs



Category: RWBY
Genre: Based off a Ship Haven prompt, Childhood Friends, Coco knows tech and shit, F/M, Fight me Duncan, French as First Language, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jaune’s Semblance is revealed early, Mentions of Blood, Nora/Ren Dynamic, Orphan AU, Selectively Mute Neo, Sign Language, Silent Knight - Freeform, Sweet, Trying to adhere to canon, pure angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 07:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14015601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveMicahs/pseuds/LoveMicahs
Summary: Neo and Jaune had known each other since childhood. Meeting after they lost their families, they were unseperable, soon falling in love. But, while Jaune thrived, Neo fell into the dark.Needless to say, things are not fine during the Fall of Beacon.





	Sword through the Heart, ‘Till Death Do Us Part

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Duncles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duncles/gifts).



> Fight Me Duncan

On any normal day, Jaune would be able to keep his calm. He’s the leader of team JNPR, and over the time he’s spent at Beacon Academy Jaune has grown more and more mature, not only of his own volition but also with support of his friends. And, not only that, he had his childhood friend and partner, Neo-

_Oh, Neo…_

Jaune never wanted it to result in this. All he’d ever wanted was for life to be normal, for him and every single one of his friends to be able to live happily.

Jaune let out a weary sigh, looking at the destruction around him. Any chance of that was far, far gone at this point. On shaky feet, he made his way back over to one of the members of his team, Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha turned and looked at him with sad, forlorn eyes, her grip on Miló and Akoúo̱ softening in an almost unnoticeable gesture. “Jaune.” Pyrrha looked upset, her gaze drifting back to the Beacon command tower. “You know that I might have to go soon-”

Jaune cut her off. “Pyrrha, I can’t let you go off alone like this. You’re my teammate.”

Pyrrha laughed softly, though she had a slightly melancholy look on her face, her emerald eyes filled with hidden emotion. “I can handle myself. Our team needs you. _Neo_ needs you.”

Jaune’s eyes widened. Oh, for the love of Oum, he forgot to check on her...come to think of it, he hadn’t even seen Neo since watching team NAVY in the first team round. Pyrrha smiled. “See? You’re already prepared-”

Pyrrha was cut off by the sound of shattering and exploding, followed by screeching metal. Both members of JNPR turned to see Cinder Fall, surrounded by inhuman fire and ashes, rising through the elevator shaft. Jaune’s breath caught in his throat at the sight. “No…” That means- Jaune shook his head to dispel the thought as Pyrrha, eyes now filled with pure fury and determination, ran towards the tower. “Pyrrha!” he gasped, rushing over. “Don’t-”

Pyrrha interrupted him, hugging him tightly. “ _I’m sorry, Jaune._ ” Before Jaune could react, Pyrrha shoved him into a weapons locker and pressed a code. As Jaune went soaring, he could see Pyrrha running inside. Though Jaune felt the tears now cascading down his cheeks, he furiously rubbed them away. He had to help his team. He had to help his friends. He had to find Neo. _Oh, gods, where was she?_

The first thing Jaune did once he hit the ground was attempt to regain his composure, using Ren’s breathing techniques to ground himself. He was somewhere in Vale, definitely...Jaune stood up, fishing out his scroll and pressing Neo’s contact. Jaune heard it ring once, twice, three times, hoping to hear her pick up, reassure him that she was alright, that she was alive, but Jaune was let down when he was instead met with Neo’s voicemail: “ _C'est Neopolitan. Je ne suis pas disponible pour le moment. Merci de laisser un message. Merci._ ” Of course. During a catastrophic event like this, why would anybody pick up the scroll? Seeing as his love would not reply, Jaune instead opted to call Ren and Nora instead. It wasn’t very surprising that Nora picked up.

“Jaune!”, Nora gasped, her voice shaking. “What’s going on?! Get your butt over here!” Jaune held the phone slightly away from his ear so his eardrums would not get blasted out.

“Nora, please. Calm down,” he said, raising his voice enough so that Nora could hear him, but any possible eavesdroppers couldn’t. “Where are you? Is Neo with you?”

The sad sigh that came from Nora’s mouth was clearly audible. “Near the school. Most of us have been fighting the Paladins, but Yang and Blake ran off somewhere and Ruby’s missing. Neo is gone, too-”

“What about the rest of NAVY?”

“Ari, Viridian, and Olive? All here.”

“...Oh. Pyrrha was given a mission, she, uh, said she’d be back…”

Nora was silent before continuing to speak. “Just…” she searched for what to say to Jaune. “Come back over here. Help us defeat the last of the robots, and then we can assemble a party to help you find Neo. Capiche?”

Jaune made an “mhm” noise in response, waiting until he was sent the coordinates from Nora to their location. With a grip tightened on Crocea Mors, Jaune headed out towards the location.

-...-

Though it had felt like forever, it took only about seven minutes or so for Jaune to reach his location. Students and friends came over, looking relieved and confused. Ren sighed. “We did not tell them of your plan, Jaune. You have to tell them.” Jaune took a shaky breath, adjusting his weapons before moving to the front, Nora and Ren diverting the other students’ attention to the knight in front of them.

“Um, hello. I’m J-Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR. I know that y-you all want to keep fighting, and you can. But I need your help. As you might know, Neopolitan of Team NAVY has gone missing…” Some of the students turned to AVY, who showed clear signs of worry over the mention of Neo’s disappearance. “So, um, you have a choice. You can keep fighting here, help people evacuate, evacuate yourself, or help me. AVY, it might be better to just fight here, Neo might be overwhelmed by a large amount of people. So, who wants to help?”

Coco was the first to step forwards. “I know the kid. She’s great. I volunteer to help you find her.” The girl held a steady hand on her suitcase, having retracted the weapon into it. Jaune looked around expectantly for somebody, anybody else to volunteer. Thankfully, Adel was not the only one. Sun stepped up, and so did Ren, after a bit of motivation on Nora’s part. After Jaune’s speech, the rest separated, and the temporary Team JRSC headed off.

-...-

Jaune’s foot tapped nervously against the concrete as JRSC skidded to a stop in an alley. Sun tipped his head at him. “Dude, are you okay?” he asked, leaning his staff on his shoulder. Jaune let out a shaky sigh, eyes focusing on his scroll.

“It’s nothing,” he mumbled quietly, tapping his dimly-glowing scroll. “I’m just...Neo isn’t responding to anything. Not even to me or the rest of her team. Even for her, this isn’t normal.” Coco blinked at Jaune, eyes widening in interest.

“I had some classes with her. She did seem...closed off. Jaune, may I see your scroll for a second?” Jaune reluctantly handed it over, and Coco began to tap something into it. Jaune leaned over her shoulder in confusion and suspicion.

“And what exactly are you doing, Coco? Looking through my messages-”

“No, you dolt,” she retorted, “I’m implicating a tracker that Port taught me to make during one of our shadow missions. Apparently Oobleck taught him back when they were students, ha.” She tapped in a few things, then handed it back to Jaune. “There,” she said quietly, a smirk showing through her facade. “It has a few kinks to work out, but I just connected your scroll to Neo’s. We can find her from there.”

Jaune’s eyes widened in amazement as a tiny pink dot appeared on the map-like screen. He opened his mouth to speak, before an ear-splitting explosion was heard distantly in the sky. They turned, just barely seeing Ruby soaring down to the front of the school. Oh, no. “A-Alright, JRSC, let’s go save Neo.”

-...-

Neo kept tapping her parasol against the ground nervously from the rooftop. She was scared, clutching her umbrella as her eyes flitted around. “Stop tapping your foot, or I’ll remove it for you, twerp,” Mercury hissed, not looking at Neo in the eyes. Neo turned her gaze away from her teammate, rolling her eyes. For the love of Oum, could Mercury lay off for a second? She just survived an airship crash, _Roman was dead_ , and she was betraying all of her friends and Jaune with every breath she took under Cinder’s command!

Emerald turned to look at Neo with calm yet concerned crimson eyes. “Hey, kid.” Neo stared at Emerald.

“ _What?_ ” Neo signed angrily, tapping her foot. Emerald opened her mouth to speak, to say something to Neo, but she was interrupted by Mercury walking over. Without a word, he pointed to a distant group of people, illuminated by the shine of their weapons and the light of one of their scrolls.

“Looks like we’ve got company,” Mercury stated, snorting. “Let’s go.” He leapt down, his metal boots clanging against the concrete. Emerald glanced at Neo, before turning away and following Mercury down the building. Neo hesitated, trying to recognize the distant shapes, before gliding down the side of the building, following the two older teens. As they made their way towards the students, Neo froze in place as the two parties met, having recognized all four of them. The group of students reacted in the same way.

“Neo…”

“ _Jaune…_ ”

While the rest of JRSC leapt into battle, weapons out as they clashed with Mercury’s metal legs and Emerald’s revolver-sickles, Jaune and Neo both were still standing in place, hands at their sides with limp grips on their weapons. Jaune was the first to speak, his voice quivering as he fought to keep calm. “Neo…” He said, his voice hoarse, “How...How COULD you…?” Jaune sucked back tears as his grip tightened on Crocea Mors.

Neo was the opposite, her grip loosened on Miss Demeanor (that was not what her weapon was truly called, Neo had just used that as a placeholder). Lifting a single hand up, she began to sign. “ _I was scared,_ ” Neo began, her hands trembling as she tried to stabilize her uneven breathing. “ _You know what happened. We’ve known each other since we were little. I couldn’t stop blaming myself, for what I did, it was my fault—_ “ Jaune cut her off.

“What-What does that have to do with anything, Neo?!” Jaune gasped.

“ _I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That, despite everything, I—_ “ Neo paused. “ _That I didn’t deserve a life like this. A good one. I was too scared to tell you or the rest of NAVY, I was so scared and messed up that I turned to being a criminal and I couldn’t turn back, I—_ “

“STOP TALKING, AND _FIGHT_ ALREADY!” Emerald and Coco both interrupted at once, pulling their members back to their own side. The fight still ravaged on, with Jaune and Neo still a bit disoriented, and Emerald’s eyes narrowed into slits as Jaune lunged, shortly before there was a scream from far away, white light exploding in everyone’s vision.

“ _ **PYRRHA!**_ ”

-...-

Jaune wished that he didn’t open his eyes. If he didn’t, he thought, he wouldn’t have to see the blood on his weapon. He wouldn’t have to see the pain-stricken look that had befallen her face, eyes staring downwards. He wouldn’t have to see what he had done.

“J...Jau…?”

Jaune thought the had grazed Emerald, or thrown Mercury off guard. But, alas, neither of those were correct, because instead of those scenarios, Jaune was forced to look at the sword, Crocea Mors, his sword, embedded in Neo’s torso. Emerald and Mercury’s eyes were wide in disbelief, but they used the “distraction” as a manner of escaping so that they could find their boss. Covering his mouth, Jaune pulled his weapon off, looking around desperately before Sun tossed him his shirt, which Jaune used to press against the wound as Neo bled. “N-Neo, m-my love, I’m...I’m s-so sorry…” Neo smiled sadly at him, mouthing the words “It’s okay”. “But it’s not okay!” Jaune gasped out, closing his eyes, “You’re DYING! I stabbed you! I-I p-punctured your rib, Neo…”

“Oh, my gods…” Coco whispered, “Your semblance…”

Jaune opened his eyes to see that yes, his hands were still pressed firmly against Neo’s torso, but her pale-pink aura was flickering. “A healing semblance…” Jaune only took this to strengthen it, make a final attempt to save his girlfriend.

Tears were running down his face as Ren knelt by his side, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s too late, Jaune,” He said quietly, “Her aura is at 0.”

As Jaune sobbed, holding Neo with aura still attempting to be transferred, he felt a soft hand on his cheek, wiping away his tears. “I...love...you...Jaune…”

Neo died there in Jaune’s arms, tears rolling down her cheeks as she bled out, her eyes white.

Jaune’s heart was broken twice that day. He not only lost his teammate and mentor, but he lost his girlfriend, his friend, his childhood partner.

He had never felt so empty. 

 

 

 


End file.
